Selective laser trabeculoplasty is a routine, in-office glaucoma treatment — fifteen minutes, no incision, patient drives home the same day. Then, that evening, the phone rings. The patient checked their eye pressure at the pharmacy kiosk, or it just feels different, and now they want to know if something went wrong. Ophthalmology practices doing any volume of SLT, MIGS, or anti-VEGF injections field a version of this call almost every night, and nearly all of it has a calm, standard answer.
The eye-pressure question is the one that generates the most anxiety, and for good reason — patients know glaucoma is about pressure, so any change feels like an emergency. "My eye pressure went up after SLT, is that expected?" The honest, physician-approved answer is yes, often: a short-lived rise in pressure can happen soon after SLT, and the eye doctor is already watching for it. It usually settles on its own, and can be managed if it doesn't. The answer also draws the line that matters — don't change any drops without instruction, and call the office right away for severe pain, significant redness, or a sudden drop in vision.
MIGS (minimally invasive glaucoma surgery) generates a similar pattern of calls a day or two out. Recovery is typically quick and comfortable compared with older, larger glaucoma operations, but mild blurriness, irritation, or light sensitivity in the first days is common as the eye settles. Patients who haven't been told to expect that will often assume it means the procedure failed. And for retina patients, the recurring question is simpler but no less anxious: what is this anti-VEGF injection actually doing, and why do I need another one? A clear answer — that it calms abnormal, leaking blood vessels in the back of the eye to protect vision in conditions like macular degeneration or diabetic eye disease — turns a confusing refill into an understood part of a treatment plan.
In PrepQ, every one of these answers is written by a physician and approved by the ophthalmology practice, which sets its own post-SLT pressure-check timing, MIGS activity restrictions, and injection scheduling. Patients reach it by text or phone call, 24/7/365. Urgent symptoms — severe eye pain, sudden vision loss, signs of infection — are escalated straight to the practice's own office line or 911, never answered by AI. The system is HIPAA-compliant, and a signed BAA is available for practices that need one.
For a glaucoma and retina practice, the payoff isn't abstract. Pressure-spike calls and post-MIGS blurriness questions are some of the most common reasons a patient shows up at urgent care or the ER unnecessarily after eye surgery — a visit that's stressful for the patient and generates a callback for the practice anyway. Patients who get an accurate answer at 9pm instead of waiting for the office to open the next morning are less likely to skip their follow-up out of fear, and front-desk staff stop re-explaining the same SLT and MIGS recovery basics call after call.